WISCONSIN: Tough Old Codger

Wisconsin's common folk, with an air of
affectionate proprietorship, called him "the old man." They liked to
think of the big, rumpled man in the governor's chair, puffing his
pipe, nibbling cheese, his voice rumbling, his massive head wagging
like an amiable St. Bernard's. Some might disagree with his basically
conservative Republicanism. But everyone agreed that Governor Walter
Samuel Goodland was honest to the point of truculence. He was also, at
84, the oldest state governor in the nation's history.

As a newspaper editor, his masthead motto had been: "Independent in all
things, neutral in none." When he became acting...